“If his Majesty is resolved to have my head, he may make a whistle of my arse if he pleases.”
On being told that part of his sentence had been remitted — that he would merely be executed, but his estate would remain intact, quoted in Joe Miller's Jests (1739) http://books.google.com/books?id=_CbolkOxjEEC&pg=PA6&vq=algernoon+sidney, p. 6.
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Algernon Sidney 16
British politician and political theorist 1623–1683Related quotes
“His majesty could not see why the principle was not applicable to politics. He resolved to try it.”
The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position: (1841)
Context: His majesty recollected the celebrated quack doctor, who when asked why his patrons were more numerous than those of regular practitioners, replied, that he was patronised by the fools, who are numerous in every community, while regular physicians are patronised by the wise, who are few. His majesty could not see why the principle was not applicable to politics. He resolved to try it. He would so govern as to be patronised by the numerous class, and leave the desires of the few to be regarded by some future emperor, who should choose to make so unpromising an experiment.
The Problem of Anxiety (1925)
1920s
“Over my head his arm he flung
Against the world.”
Bells and Pomegranates No. III: Dramatic Lyrics: Count Gismond (1842), xix.
Feherty on his respect towards Woods. ( The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/ustour/2315083/Feherty-finally-as-dry-as-his-humour.html, Jun 12, 2007 )
“He has paid dear, very dear, for his whistle.”
The Whistle (November, 1779); reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
1770s
